This Weblog or "Blog" contains articles, events and opinions that support capital punishment in North Carolina and elsewhere. Author(s) of the contents are exercising their rights to free speech which unfortunately is often stifled or ignored by the media.
Contrary to what you might read or hear in the news, North Carolinians should be proud that an occassional and deserved execution is allowed to proceed.
- Wayne Uber

Friday, April 19, 2013

For those who have
lost loved ones to murder, the execution of the murderer definitely brings
closure.

The execution is closure to the legal process, whereby
execution is the most just sanction available for the crime and the family is
relieved that the murderer is dead and can no longer harm another innocent - a
very big deal.

It is the closure of justice.

The confusion with
"closure" is when some imply that execution can bring psychological or emotional
closure to the devastation suffered by the murder victim's loved ones.

I
know of no victim survivor who believes that execution could bring that type of
closure. How could it? No punishment can, nor is that the intention.

The
concept of emotional "closure" via execution is, often, a fantasy perpetrated by
anti death penalty folks, just so they can denounce it, with a talking point, as
in: "Those supporting capital punishment claim that closure is a major reason to
support the death penalty - but there is no closure."

When pro death
penalty folks state that the death penalty brings closure, I think they are,
equally, in error, except in the stated context.

Do you know of any murder victim survivor who says
that their emotional or psychological pain was closed once the murderer was
executed? Me neither. And I have known a lot of them.

There is no balancing of the scales, here. There is no comparing the unjust taking of an innocent life by a guilty murderer and the just taking of that murderer's life.
===

Murder victim
"Mary Bounds' daughter, Jena Watson, who watched the execution, said Berry's
action deprived the family of a mother, a grandmother and a friend, and that
pain will never go away."

"We feel that we have received justice," she
said Wednesday after the execution. "There's never an end to the hurt from a
violent crime. There can never fully be closure. You have to learn to do the
best you can. Tonight brings finality to a lot of emotional issues."

Ina
Prechtl, who lost her daughter Felecia Prechtl. to a rape /murder said, after
watching Karl Chamberlain executed: "One question I ask myself every day, why
does it take so long for justice to be served?" It took 17 years for the
execution (both the above from "Texas executes 1st inmate since injection lull",
6/11/2008, MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer, HUNTSVILLE,
Texas).

===

Dr. Willam Petit, Jr., whose wife Jennifer, daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, suffered through torture, being burned alive and murdered, in a home invasion, stated: "It’s
helpful that justice has been served with an appropriate verdict (the death
penalty). I don’t think there’s ever closure. I think whoever came up with that
concept is an imbecile. . . . many of you know it who have lost a parent or a
child or a friend, there’s never closure. There’s a hole… it’s a hole with
jagged edges and over time the edges may smooth out a little bit, but the hole
in your heart and the hole in your soul is still there. So there’s never
closure." Dr. Petit was nearly beaten to death in the same attack.

"Suffering has no redemptive value", By SHMULEY BOTEACH The (Bergen)
Record, November 18, 2010

===

"(Kidnap/rape/murder victim) Cheryl Payton's sister, Susan
Payton, said, "On this (execution) day, we're uncertain that you could define
today as closure. It is like a chapter in a book that you just read the next
chapter and you hope that the next chapter might be better" ( "Victim’s Family
Reacts To Execution", by Steve Alexander, WKRG, Mobile News, Alabama, May 27,
2010).

===

"There may not be closure today. I think there is peace," said Judge
Brendon Sheehan said, after the execution of his father's murderer. ("Judge Says
'No Closure' After Execution of Father's Killer" By Bill Sheil, Fox 8 I-Team
Reporter, Cleveland, Ohio, February 18, 2011)

===

“Right now, it's a feeling more of relief . . . there's a little more closure for the whole family. I wanted that closure.” Mary Ann McEntee, mother of Holly Washa, a rape/torture/murder victim, upon hearing of her daughter's murderer's execution.

"She said thousands of dollars in tax money was wasted in the past 19 years to house, feed and clothe Brown."

"Over the next 36 hours, Washa was tortured and raped in a Seattle motel" "Brown was arrested four days later in California, after a brutal rape and knife attack on a 33-year-old woman in a hotel there. That victim lived to call 911." ("Relief found in killer's execution", John Ferak, (Omaha) WORLD-HERALD, September 15, 2010, 6:14 am)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Sister Helen Prejean: A Critical ReviewDudley Sharp The
parents of rape/torture/murder victim Loretta Bourque, a "Dead Man Walking" Case
" . . .makes you realize the Dead Man Walking truly belongs on the
shelf in the library in the Fiction category." "Being devout Catholics,
'the norm' would be to look to the church for support and healing. Again, this
need for spiritual stability was stolen by Sister Prejean." (1)
======Case Detective Michael Vernado, in the
rape/torture/murder of Faith Hathaway, a Dead Man Walking Case "I
wouldn't have had as much trouble with (Prejean's) views if she would have told
the truth . . ." " . . . (Sr. Prejean) based her book on what was in I guess a
defense file and what (rapist/murderer) Robert Willie telling her." (1)" . . .
she's trying to mislead people in the book. And that's something that she's
going have to work out with herself." "(Sr. Prejean's) certainly not after
giving anybody spiritual advice to try to save their soul." (1)
======DEATH OF TRUTH: (1)

Book Review: "Sister Prejean's Lack of Credibility: Review of "The Death of
Innocents", by Thomas M. McKenna (New Oxford Review, 12/05). www.newoxfordreview.org/reviews.jsp?did=1205-mckenna"The
book is moreover riddled with factual errors and
misrepresentations.""Williams had confessed to repeatedly stabbing his
victim, Sonya Knippers.""This DNA test was performed by an independent
lab in Dallas, which concluded that there was a one in nearly four billion
chance that the blood could have been someone's other than Williams's."
" . . . despite repeated claims that (Prejean) cares about crime
victims, implies that the victim's husband was a more likely suspect but was
overlooked because the authorities wanted to convict a black man." " .
. . a Federal District Court . . . stated that 'the evidence against Williams
was overwhelming.' " "The same court also did "not find any evidence of racial
bias specific to this case." ======Prejean finds that THERE IS
NO GREATER SUFFERING , MENTALLY, THAN BEING A GUILTY MURDERER ON DEATH ROW
(2)Did she consider the mental suffering of a parent who lost their
innocent daughter to a rape/murder or, possibly, the mental (and physical)
suffering of that girl, as she was being raped and murdered? Of course
the sister considered it and she made her choice - the murderer.

======
At
least since Sacco and Vanzetti, the anti death penalty movement has been
presenting guilty murderers as innocent (1). Though Sacco and Vanzetti's guilt was well known to a small cadre of anti death penalty folks and anarchists, they still allowed
riots and other violence to take place, based upon the fraud of their innocence
(1), in a well orchestrated campaign, similar to those of today, such as the Troy Davis case (8) or the 155 "exonerated" or "innocent" frauds (2).
These frauds are easily discovered by basic fact checking yet, many in the media and academia advance these frauds, instead of exposing them.
False innocence
claims: the many, the blatant, the legendary:
1) see Sacco
and Vanzetti, within both:
a) Guilty: Sacco and Vanzettihttp://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/08/guilty-sacco-and-vanzetti.html"(Author Upton) Sinclair met with Fred Moore, (Sacco and Vanzetti's defense) attorney, in a Denver motel room. Moore "sent me into a panic," Sinclair wrote in the typed letter that Hegness found at the auction a decade ago."

2) Roger Keith Coleman
The classic Cause Celebre, anti death penalty case is put together like
this:
Imagine facts that evidence won't support, but make it real, anyway. And
keep it going for years and years (1).
Anti death penalty activist Jim McCloskey spent 14 years championing
Coleman's innocence.
He created a case of an innocent executed and knew the media would come. And, boy, did they.
Here is McCloskey's assessment of the state's case against Coleman:
"The (state's) case was built on innuendos and lies and ludicrous, insane
theory that falls flat in the face of common sense." (2)
This is a classic quote of anti death penalty infamy, duplicating so many others.
Mr. McCloskey, look
in the mirror. Coleman's guilt was confirmed by DNA, as McCloskey, now, concedes.
For some time, Coleman's defense team concentrated on the "real murderer",
with whom they, later, had to make an out of court settlement.It really is that bad. As McCloskey could have said, "The case for Coleman's innocence was built on innuendos and lies and a ludicrous, insane theory that falls flat in the face of common sense."3)
The Blatant Fraud - The 160 "exonerated" from death row
The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) simply decided to redefine both "exonerated" and "innocent", in the same fashion as if they redefined "lie" as "truth" and then stuffed a bunch of cases into those fraudulent definitions. It's that basic, as simple fact checking confirms.
a) The 130 (now 160) death row "innocents" scamhttp://homicidesurvivors.candothathosting.com/2009/03/04/the-death-row-130-innocents-scam-nm/
b) The "Innocent", the "Exonerated" and Death Rowhttp://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-innocent-exonerated-and-death-row_19.html
An Open Fraud in the Death Penalty Debate: How Death Penalty Opponents Lie
This is a look at how well destroyed the "EXONERATED" and/or "INNOCENTS" list is and how it has been so deceptively used by the anti death penalty movement.4) Florida & Texas: The 83% error rate in "exoneration" claims. Florida4 of the 24 "exonerated" may be innocent, as found in 2 studies by a Florida state agency, the Florida Commission on Capital Cases. It is no surprise that the 24 "exonerated" claim comes from the deceptive DPIC. The Florida media just laps the 24 "exonerated" fraud up, with zero fact checking, as has become way to common.This may represent the worst case of media deception, as the Florida media has known the real numbers since 2002 (updated 2011) but refuses to use them, instead, pushing the well known DPIC deception of the 23/24 "exonerated". That is how bad it has gotten.
From page 5 (2002 study) and page 7 (2011 study):
"The guilt of only four defendants was subsequently "doubted" by the prosecuting office or the Governor and Cabinet members:
Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee were pardoned by Governor Askew and
the Cabinet, citing substantial doubt of their guilt, Frank Lee Smith
died before the results of DNA testing excluded him as the perpetrator
of the sexual assault, and the State chose not to retry James Richardson
due to newly discovered evidence and the suspicion of another
perpetrator."
"doubted", not confirmed.
a) Case Histories: A Review of 24 Individuals Released from Death Row
(2002), FLORIDA COMMISSION ON CAPITAL CASES, Locke Burt, Chairman, June 20,
2002, Revised: September 10, 2002 - This file cannot be found, likely, because the (b) report, just below, is an update of this one.

b) TRULY INNOCENT?: A Review of 23 Case Histories of Inmates Released from
Florida‘s Death Row Since 1973, Commission on Capital Cases, The Florida
Legislature, Roger R. Maas, Executive Director, May 13, 2011

TexasThe Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) claims 12 death row "exonerations" in Texas.By Texas law, Texas has only identified one former death row inmate , Anthony Graves, as actually innocent . . . well, actually, no . . ."Actual innocence" in the Graves case was decided by a "belief" standard, not an evidence standard, with this exception "no credible evidence exists that inculpates the defendant" , crossing the well known evidence line:"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."By this amendment, any guilty murderer with "absence of evidence" - POOF - becomes "actually innocent".The belief "standard" had to be amended into the law, because there was no evidence to establish Grave's innocence, as the law, previously, required such evidence to prove innocence, thereby requiring the judge to find that the Graves case did not qualify for that finding, which was the case.How better to declare Anthony Graves "actually innocent" than to avoid a standard of evidence establishing innocence and replace it with "belief" and absence of evidence.Done.

Another case, that of Michael Blair, must be included as a proven innocent,
but was excluded for compensation, under a provision of the law. He remains a
lifer with four sexual assaults on children convictions.

I am told that Randall Dale Adams, put on death row for the murder of Dallas police officer Robert
Wood, is a slam dunk innocence case, made famous by "The Thin Blue Line" film (1988). I just haven't looked at the case, yet.

So, 2 or 3 out of 12, meaning a 75-83% error rate in the Texas death row
"exoneration" claims. There are no other death penalty cases pending.

"Innocents" & Texas' Death Row: The "Exoneration" Frauds Continuehttp://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2015/09/innocents-texas-death-row.html5)
"The innocence tactic: Unreliable studies and disinformation", reports By United
States Congress, Senate, 107th Congress, 2d Session, Calender no 731, Report
107-315. The Innocence Protection Act of 2002, (iv) The innocence tactic:
Unreliable studies and disinformation, p 65-69 http://alturl.com/6j7oc
"Death penalty opponents have decided that, if a large enough risk of
mistaken executions does not exist, they will invent it."And that is, exactly what they have done.

6) Jesse Tafero among others"The Myth
Of Innocence"­, Joshua Marquis, pu­blished in the Journal of Criminal Law &
Criminolog­y - 3/31/2005, Northweste­rn University School of Law, Chicago,
Illinois
"Having largely abandoned the moral arguments against capital punishment, the modern abolition movement is now based on a trio of urban legends: (1) the death penalty is racist at its core; (2) those accused of capital murder get grossly inadequate representation; and (3) a remarkable number of people on death row are innocent."

7)
Joseph O"Dellsee section III. Death Of Truth: Sister Prejean's book "The Death Of Innocents:
An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions":
"(Prejean's) book is moreover riddled with factual errors and
misrepresentations."
" . . . despite repeated claims that (Prejean) cares about crime victims,
implies that the victim's husband was a more likely suspect but was overlooked
because the authorities wanted to convict a black man."
" . . . a Federal District Court . . . stated that 'the evidence against
Williams was overwhelming.' " "The same court also did "not find any evidence
of racial bias specific to this case."

"This DNA test was
performed by an independent lab in Dallas, which concluded that there was a one
in nearly four billion chance that the blood could have been someone's other
than Williams'."
fromSister Helen Prejean: Does Truth Matter?:Dead Man Walking & The Death Penalty

8) Exoneration Inflation
"Exoneration Inflation: Justice Scalia’s Concurrence in Kansas v. March", by
Ward Campbell, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, California Department of
Justice, p 49, The Journal of the Institute for the Advancement of Criminal
Justice, Issue 2, Summer 2008http://www.cjlf.org/files/CampbellExonerationInflation2008.pdf
"The more conservative approach of the court in Quinones I only recognized “actual innocence” in one‑half of one percent of the 7,084 death sentences imposed between 1973 and 2001." (NOTE: Sharp: My assessment, based upon multiple additional reviews, is o.4% through 2016).
"By deflating the DPIC List, Justice Scalia’s concurring opinion in Kansas
v. Marsh contributes to an honest and realistic assessment of that actual
risk."

9)
"The Innocent and the Shammed"by Joshua Marquis, Published in New York Times,
1/26/2006, http://coastda.blogspot.com/2006/01/innocent-and-shammed-nyt-oped.html
" . . .nothing is gained by deluding the public into believing that the police and prosecutors are trying to send innocent people to prison. Any experienced defense lawyer will concede that he would starve if he accepted only "innocent" clients. Americans should be far more worried about the wrongfully freed than the wrongfully convicted."Sharp: Since 1973:about 16,000 additional innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN murderers that we have allowed to murder, again - recidivist murderers.about 400,000 additional innocents have been murdered by those KNOWN criminals that we have allowed to harm, again - recidivist criminals.

The state of the forensics in the Cameron
Todd Willingham case is this:
1) Of all of the forensics reports, that I
have read, which find fault with the arson findings, none exclude arson. They
conclude that the fire could be either arson or an accident.
2) Other reports continue to find for
arson.
Other, non fire forensic, evidence against
Todd Willingham not only continues to find for guilt but there is, now, more and
stronger evidence against him.
Expert witnesses:
We have all seen where there are equally
qualified experts in a trial that have opinions that are complete opposites. In
some cases, there can be credible disagreement. In others, we respond with a
deserved cynicism,
With the Willingham fire, no credible
person has denied that the fire could be arson.
Dr. Hurst demurred. “I never had a case
where I could exclude arson,” he said. “It’s not possible to do
that.”(a)
Sadly, but in character (b), Barry Scheck and
the Innocence Project have stated, flatly, that it wasn't arson and that
Willingham was an innocent executed (c) All that Scheck and the IP are doing is
injuring the credibility of forensic science. Evidently, for them, the find
their agenda worth it. Former Texas Governor Mark White, now an anti death
penalty activist, appears headed down this path, as well.
(a) "Family’s Effort to Clear Name Frames
Debate on Executions", John Schwartz, New York Times, October 14, 2010,

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/05/carlos-deluna-another-false-innocence.html
"Paul Rivera, a
Corpus Christi police investigator who transported DeLuna between city and county jails, said the study's researchers asked him years ago to reread the DeLuna case.
Rivera said he took his time combing through the investigation reports and transcripts. In the end, he drew the same conclusion."
"I know exactly what happened," he said. "DeLuna stabbed Wanda Lopez when she was on the phone and she was screaming for help."
"Rivera, who investigated more than 200 murders in Corpus Christi, said at least nine of those people were on death row and no one questioned his investigations or methods before DeLuna's case."
"The Columbia researchers are adamant about trying to abolish the death penalty, he said. "I don't know why these people are so vicious," he said."
b) "Report questioning execution doesn't sway lawyers" MICHAEL GRACZYK,
Associated Press, CNS NEWS, May 16, 2012 - 9:15 PM, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/report-questioning-execution-doesnt-sway-lawyers#sthash.Xqa96lzy.dpuf
"DeLuna claimed the killer was a man named Carlos Hernandez whom he'd met
in the Nueces County jail. The county's former prosecutor who tried DeLuna,
Steve Schiwetz, said records showed DeLuna had never been in the jail at the
same time as a Carlos Hernandez. He also said investigators gave defense
attorneys photos of every Carlos Hernandez who had been jailed in Nueces County
and showed them to DeLuna, who refused to identify any of the photos as the
killer."

"It still bothers me to this day he wouldn't," (DeLuna's defense counsel)
Lawrence said.

"The conclusion I come to is he's making it up, giving a phony name, hence
the phantom Carlos Hernandez," Schiwetz said. "What am I supposed to do?"
Schiwetz . . . believes Hernandez either didn't exist or had no connection to
the case. Nothing so far, he said, has "changed my mind as to who did it."
c) Carlos DeLuna: "At the Death House Door" Can Rev. Carroll Pickett be
trusted?

REPLY: There is this major problem. It appears that Rev.
Pickett is, now, either lying about his own 1989 opinions or he is very
confused.
In 1999, 4 years after Rev. Pickett had left
his death row ministry, and he had become an anti death penalty activist, and 10
years after De Luna's execution, the reverend was asked, in a PBS Frontline
interview,
"Do you think there have been some you have
watched die who were strictly innocent?"Pickett's reply: "I never felt
that."
13) Gary Graham: Hollywood, Murder and Texas: A CASE STUDY OF LIES, HALF-TRUTHS
AND INTIMIDATION http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/graham.htm
"C. (1) Gary Graham's defense claims have been reviewed and rejected 9 times
by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest criminal court in Texas), 2
times by the Texas Supreme Court, 4 times by the U.S. Supreme Court and in a
total of thirty-three (33) judicial or executive proceedings. (Houston
Post, July 29, 1993 and subsequent events, as of 9/8/96.)(2) a. Federal District Court Judge David Hittner ruled that
all of Graham's new evidence is not sufficient to entitle him to a
federal hearing and refused Graham a hearing or a stay of execution. He
also stated that several of Graham's new witnesses were not credible.
(Houston Post, August 16, 1993 and Houston Chronicle, August 14,
1993.)
b. After a thorough review of all the "new evidence", by
himself and his staff, Texas Attorney General Dan Morales stated, "...that
none of that new information is credible. There is no new evidence. Graham is
stalling for time." The "new evidence" and "revised" witness statements
are ""stoned-cold manufactured evidence." (Houston Chronicle, August 15,
1993, Houston Sun August 16, 1993 and The Texas Observer, August 20,
1993.)

14) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg For decades and internationally, one of the biggest "innocent" executed cases.

Rosenberg Lies Never
Cease:

Sons seeking to exonerate their
long-dead parents for their spying for Stalin are resorting to dishonest
evasions, By John R. Schindler, Observer, 10/17/16

http://observer.com/2016/10/rosenberg-lies-never-cease/"Code-phrases such as being “devoted” and “well-developed politically”
reveal that Ethel was a committed Stalinist in whom the Soviet secret police
placed trust." "Ethel was a such a willing and witting member of the Soviet
espionage apparat in mid-1940s America that she was setting up her own
sister-in-law as a candidate for recruitment by the KGB."

"What totally
undermines the Meeropols’ case, however, is that Feklisov at one point refers to
Ethel as a “probationer” (cтажёр in Russian). This word appears
regularly in VENONA messages and was old school KGB-speak for
agents, that is foreigners who worked wittingly for
Soviet intelligence. That closes any debate about how Feklisov viewed Ethel
Rosenberg."

"The awful truth is that Ethel Rosenberg, a committed Communist, loved Stalin
more than her own children." "Nobody who understands Soviet intelligence and has
read the relevant VENONA messages with open eyes has any doubt that Ethel
Rosenberg was an agent of the KGB. She was witting regarding a large degree of
her husband’s enormous treason, perhaps all of it. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
were fanatical Communists in a manner we now associate with jihadists. The cause
was their life; it mattered more than anything, even family."

======"Grasping at Straws to Try to Exonerate Ethel Rosenberg",
OPINION COMMENTARY, By RONALD RADOSH, Wall Street Journal, July 19,
2015"It never occurs to these reporters that at the early stage of
his arrest David Greenglass was desperately trying to protect his sister and to
convince the government to leave her out of the indictment. We also know that
when he first went for legal advice, he even left Julius out of his
confession.""Even in other parts of the same transcript, largely ignored
in the press reports, Greenglass has his sister Ethel present and knowledgeable,
as when he says she was present at a meeting with Julius and a courier for his
group, Ann Sidorovich.""Hard evidence for Ethel’s guilt can be found in the Venona
decrypts of KGB messages to its operatives in the U.S., and in the notebooks of
KGB files meticulously copied in the 1990s by Alexander Vassiliev,who fled
Russia in 1996 and had them smuggled into London.""A Nov. 21, 1944, Venona decrypt has Julius telling the KGB
that he and his wife both recommend the recruitment of Ruth Greenglass, David’s
wife. On Nov. 27, KGB agent Leonid Kvasnikov cabled that they considered Ethel
'sufficiently well developed politically. Knows about her husband’s work” as
well as that of other agents. He characterizes her “positively and as a devoted
person.' ""In Vassiliev’s notebooks, an entry from the KGB says about
Julius that 'His wife knows about her husband’s work and personally knows
‘Twain’ and ‘Callistratus.’ [code names of Soviet agents.] She could be used
independently, but she should not be overworked. Poor health.""Another entry,
about a meeting held on May 12, 1944 with Ruth, Ethel and Julius, reports that
when told by Julius that they had to keep silent, 'Ethel here interposed to
stress the need for utmost care and caution in informing David of the work in
which Julius was engaged and that for his own safety all other political
discussion and activity on his part should be subdued.' "" . . . there is substantial evidence that Ethel Rosenberg was
guilty as charged. Journalists could have found that evidence if they had taken
the time to look."Mr. Radosh, an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute, is the
author, with Joyce Milton, of “The Rosenberg File” (Yale University, 1997
revised edition).======

". . . as John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev have
revealed in Spies . . . Ethel Rosenberg was not only aware of the network her husband
had put in place, she herself suggested that her brother David Greenglass be
recruited by the KGB since he was stationed at Los Alamos. ""Second, and most
importantly, Julius Rosenberg was not only aware of the Manhattan Project, he
recruited a second atom spy, Russell McNutt, precisely because he thought that
McNutt would be able to gather atomic bomb information from the plant at Oak
Ridge, Tennessee." from Son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Admits One Parent's Guilt,
BY RON RADOSH, PJ Media, APRIL 8, 2011, https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2011/4/8/the-confused-admission-of-his-parents-guilt-by-the-rosenbergs-youngest-son-robert-what-does-it-mean/2/======

The US Government has direct evidence of Julius Rosenberg, and others',
involvement with the Soviet's, as spies for atomic secrets, with intercepted
communications between the Soviet's and some of their US spies, from 1944. These Venona
intercepts were released in 1995. There was more than enough evidence that Ethel,
at least, knew of his spying and chose not to report it, enough for a
conspiracy, which was the charge and why they were executed.The above evidence is clear that Ethel was actively involved.
Folks look past the obvious.Both Ethel and Julius had ample time to come forward and proclaim Ethel innocence and,
to, at least, save one parent for their children. They chose not to. instead,
they both chose that Ethel should die, leaving their children to be orphaned,
a decisive indicator of guilt for them both, as well as their devotion to
the cause, which was stronger than their love for their children, which, rationally, could not be more obvious.

Direct evidence of Ethel's guilt came later, as did more evidence of the
damage that the Rosenberg spy ring caused, as reviewed above.

"As for Ethel Rosenberg’s role, the evidence is unequivocal. She recruited
her brother as an atomic spy and provided logistical support to Julius's
espionage activities. She knew at least two Soviet intelligence officers, and
they considered her a loyal and trustworthy compatriot."

NOTE: This, below, is a "rebuttal" to Radosh and Usdin's article above, by Michael
Meeropol, one of the Rosenberg's sons. The rebuttal is so weak, that it should
be viewed as a complete concession, with the exception of the date Julius became a spy.

In Response to Ronald Radosh and Steven Usdin, Michael Meeropol, Letter to
New Republic, published 2/1/2001http://ncrrc.org/in-response-to-ronald-radosh-and-steven-usdin/
15) The Innocence Project Invents False Confessionshttp://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-innocence-project-invents-false.html
"Dr. Welner demonstrated how poor scientific methodology and an anti-police agenda among declared scholars in this novel area of scientific interest result in inflated perceptions of the prevalence of false confessions.
These include false representations by The Innocence Project that the proportion of false confessions in wrongful conviction cases is 25 percent when that percentage is in actuality close to 10 percent."

They would chose sparing the lives of 1300 guilty murderers (executed from 1973-2013) over saving an additional 6.3 million innocent lives, taken by murder.

Anti death penalty. academic leaders make that argument. Astounding. "

17) Larry Griffin The case of guilt against Larry Griffin grew stronger with this newest investigation:See Summary, page 11-13, “Report of the Circuit Attorney: On the Murder of Qinton Moss and Conviction of Larry Griffin”, 7/12/07,http://stlcin.missouri.org/circuitattorney/ca-reports.cfmiffin

New death penalty statutes were enacted in 1973, after Furman
v Georgia (1972) overturned all death statutes. The US Supreme Court approved some new statutes in 1976 within Gregg v Georgia.Since 1973:1) no credible claim of an innocent executed in the modern era, post 1972 ("The Innocents Fraud", above);2) the death penalty protects innocents, in three ways, better than does life without parole (LWOP): enhanced due process, enhanced incapacitation and enhanced deterrence ("The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents", below);

3) 5000 die/yr in US criminal custody. 33/yr, on average, are executed. (Innocents More At Risk Without Death Penalty, below );

Since 1973:4) from 14,000 - 28,000 additional innocents were murdered by those
murderers that we allowed to murder, again - recidivist murderers. since 1973. See "The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives", below ; and

5) some 500,000 innocents have been murdered by those known
criminals we have allowed to harm again - recidivist criminals. See "The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives", below.
A true concern for innocents would result in many more death sentences and many fewer criminals released.